SC disbands Pakistan Medical and Dental Council

E-Paper | April 24, 2026

The Supreme Court on Friday disbanded the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and ordered an interim committee to take charge of its affairs, DawnNews reported.

The seven-member interim committee will be headed by retired Justice Shakirullah Jan. Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf will also be part of the body and will help draft legislation as per the court's order.

The interim committee will have the authority to review and inspect medical colleges, the order said.

Announcing his verdict in court, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said he will monitor the interim setup personally.

A detailed verdict has yet to be released.

“If the PMDC is illegal then it cannot be allowed to continue,” the CJP had observed on Thursday while heading a three-judge bench that had taken up an appeal from the PMDC against a Dec 7, 2017 Lahore High Court decision to dissolve the council and strike down its admission regulations.

Barrister Ali Zafar, the counsel for the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI), had argued that the PMDC council was functioning unlawfully because it had been created under the PMDC (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 which had lapsed on April 25, 2016 and, therefore, all acts done and regulations passed by it were also unlawful.

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Pakistan

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Imran Ahmad

Jan 12, 2018 10:46am

Thats a shame....I wonder what happens to the brute amounts paid in bribes for registration of spurious medical colleges!!! This ought to have happened long time ago.

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Pakman

Jan 12, 2018 10:55am

Excellent, bravo SCP. Please also recover the bribes they may have received from private medical colleges at the cost of the future of so many students whose parents have suffered a lot.

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jaredlee67

Jan 12, 2018 11:07am

Great job! Let Aga Khan University take the lead and then see how standards change.

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Tigre

Jan 12, 2018 11:32am

Whatever the medical and dental committee was doing has not worked.

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Ahmad

Jan 12, 2018 11:47am

Let the same happen to PEC

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Shaukat Ali Khan

Jan 12, 2018 12:42pm

Isn't it someone else's job? Who will take care of cases pending since 99 years?

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Shaukat Ali Khan

Jan 12, 2018 12:43pm

Ensuring that the matters are run as per law and the colleges don't charge undue fee should be the aim.

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Shaukat Ali Khan

Jan 12, 2018 12:45pm

There should be some punishment for the defaulters too.

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Dr. Doctor

Jan 12, 2018 01:10pm

For the quality of doctors being produced who are not at par practically with any other country but are only passing in exams, all the medical institutes should be shut down other than the original few that existed around early 80's.

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Silent observer

Jan 12, 2018 02:00pm

Thanks a lot SC.

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Farjee

Jan 12, 2018 02:03pm

@Dr. Doctor population is more than 2 times since 1980. Your suggestion is not up to current scenario. We need doctors and closing medical colleges is not a choice. Improving standards is what the authorities should go for..

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Akeel Ahmed

Jan 12, 2018 02:39pm

well done, CJP, please also bring to book the people who are helping open these illegal medical colleges. Please take stern action against quacks.

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Asif

Jan 12, 2018 02:53pm

@Dr. Doctor thats nonsnese. Thousands of medical and dental students from Pakistan go to US and Australia and Europe each year. They pass the conversion tests with ease. Trust me more beyond you can believe.

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Dr. Doctor

Jan 12, 2018 03:17pm

@Farjee I still stand behind my stance. The same colleges that maintained their standards of teaching (both pre-clinical and clinical) should be provided funding for expansion along with branches to handle the excessive load. Every new college with intentions of making money, no attention to quality of education will only produce large numbers of doctors to match the increasing population 'on paper' alone, but when it comes to skills, they would still be inferior. I recently witnessed the absolute absence of basic clinical skills in an emergency room in Pakistan, where a trainee (possibly a nursing student) was reporting erroneous vitals on a patient in circulatory collapse. Upon prompting, all the incompetent doctor on duty could do was yell at me for erroneously calling the nursing student a 'ward boy'. No remedies were undertaken. Due to lack of experience, physicians from these newer institutes, are not at par in dealing with emergencies and life-threatening situations.

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Shafqat Hussain

Jan 12, 2018 05:59pm

Very Good Decision Winning Hearts. Congratulations To Federal Minister Health Saira Afzal Tarar

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idrees

Jan 15, 2018 11:04am

This is stupidity of a person who thinks that only He is right and all others are incompetent bullshits. If we consider vice versa and handover courts to Doctors to look into the supreme court matters, what will be the result.I think the honorable CJ should cleanup his mess in courts first, judges and Lawyers both, and leave PMDC to Doctors and administration.

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